The sun was just rising into the sky turning the sea into a golden color, while we had just sailed into one of the most beautiful coves of the island of Zakinthos, Laganas. What a wonderful way to start our day, with a swim in this golden blue water. The water was nice and warm, though it was a tremendous feeling swimming under the tall mast of the Sea Cloud. Laganas is a cove were no fishing or major activity is allowed as this is an area where the sea turtles lay their eggs, over one hundred each hatching are protected by the ministry of environment.
After our swim and breakfast we were full of positive energy to visit ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic games. We docked at the port of Katakolon, on the western part of the Peloponnese and drove to the ancient site. Our expedition leader, Tom had planned for us to visit Olympia to take place midday after all 3000 thousand passengers off large cruise ships had left the area. When we arrived at this unique site we had it all to ourselves to enjoy!
The first modern Olympic games took place here in 776 B.C. organized in honor of Zeus, the father of the Olympic gods. We strolled around the gymnasium and palestra building that had been used by the athletes training in running, javelin, long jumps, discus throwing, wrestling, and boxing and heard the full story of it all from our guides, Laura and Smaro. We saw where the statue of Zeus, made out of gold and ivory and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, had been made by Phidias, and we walked all around the impressive temple of Zeus that had been destroyed by earthquakes.
The stadium was really impressive with a 20-meter archway that led to its center. It once could seat 50,000 people and Greeks from all around the Mediterranean would travel here every four years in order to take part in the Olympics. Colonies had been established by those in Sicily, Italy, France, Spain, the coast of today’s Turkey, the Black sea; they stood like frogs around a lake, said Plato! With this very important religious and athletic event the Greeks united and honored their city-state families. The prize for the games was nothing but an olive wreath—it was the glory that mattered and not the gold!
At the stadium some of us volunteered to have a race….we were told though to keep our clothes on….the ancient games were of nude men! It was exciting and fulfilling to run in the ancient Olympic stadium, the birthplace of such an important event 3,000 years ago!
We visited the museum of Olympia where we saw all the statues that were once decorating the temples. The most beautiful of them all was the statue of Hermes, made by the sculptor Praxiteles, he was so handsome!
We got on to our buses and headed towards the winery of Merkouri. On route we nibbled on our fancy picnic lunches that had been prepared for us on the Sea Cloud. The winery was situated in superb location and was now run by a member of the fourth generation! We walked through the old museum building; full of old tools, bottles, just a wonderful place for photography. We then walked through the wine cellars, were the temperature was so much cooler than outside! Finally we sat under old pine trees and tasted wine, local olive oil, cheese and olives, it was perfect!
We returned to a harbor that was now empty of cruise ships and rested reminising about what a great day we had! A wonderful dinner was served today at the Lido bar, under the sky that had once again turned gold from the sun setting! Life aboard Sea Cloud cannot get any better!
